DTG News and Else
DT&G: Vol. 14, Number 8, August, 2004 ~ The eZine for Design, Typography, & Graphics   (since 1990)  

August: Back to (Design) School

August: Back to (Design) School

This month's topic is all about learning! And, as usual our readers have all joined in with some rather wonderful insights into the way they learn, favorite training resources, and keeping a sharply honed edge on graphic design and communication arts.

Design School? Training?

Let's Go... How do you like to learn? Books? CD-Videos? DVD? Or surfing the web? There are hundreds of ways to learn graphic design, Photoshop and other facets of the visual communications industry, and here we take a look at just a few ways to learn graphic arts

Deke McClelland's Total Training

Reviewer Joyce Evans shares a brief look inside some of the best video training on the planet... with Photoshop expert Deke McClelland and the product called Total Training

Editor's Choice: HTML Complete Course

Author, Donna L. Baker chats about her latest book: HTML Complete Course; part of the Wiley/Seybold Complete Course series -- and discusses key issues of using HTML to build web sites...

Design CAFE discusses Web Design

This rather long piece is from the Design Cafe list (July, 2004) wherein a listee asks "how do you learn web design creativity?" ... the following thread sheds interesting light on new design attitudes from a diverse group of designers who practice web design

University of Utah gets fine tuning

Reviewer Mike Swope observes that this well organized site could use a little strength in branding and clarity... WDR agrees and adds a diagramed example page with subtle CSS tweaks that add polish and purpose to the CEUU Website.
      Don't forget to take a look at this month's reader web sites... and then post YOUR web critiques or reviews at Web Design & Review ... Now, see the CEUU Critique.

Learning About Color

Color expert Mike Davis of Colorprep knows what to do when color goes wrong... and many times it's the photographer or designer's fault! So what do you do ... When Good Color Goes Bad

5 Steps to a Stand-Out Website

Tim Clukey has been teaching web design for over 6 years at the Plattsburgh State University Communications Department in Plattsburgh, NY. He shares som insights into web design ... when crafting messages for the web, it's the steak and not the sizzle that makes a difference. Follow along with his ... 5 Ways to Get Your Website to Stand Out

Learning About Photo Mosaics

Photo Mosaics are photographic images or pictures made up of many, usually hundreds, of smaller photographic images. Last month we asked the DTG readers about the topic and they flooded us with lots of help in ... learning all about Photo Mosaics

Karen Dodds on: Audience & Content

Karen Dodds first wrote for DT&G back in 1995 after we discovered her considerable skills in identifying the true essence of design. Here are her views on ... Karen Dodds on: Audience & Content

Learning more about Web Design

I've refreshed a talk I used to give back in the early 1990s which is still very valid today... web designers must remember how to learn, then how to put that knowledge to work... Designing Websites!

Digital Photos to Presentations

With all the great programs like iView and iPhoto for the Mac, Windows readers wonder what they can use... so, we turn to Scott Kilborn from ACE Camera Magazine, to share some details about ProShow Gold 2.0 slide show and presentation software...

SEPTEMBER: FALL FONTS FESTIVAL

YES, it's that time of year again, when we celebrate all things about fonts, type and typography! You can WIN some of our valuable prizes, including the highly collectable "International Type Founders" fonts book by sharing with DT&G readers... we're turning to YOU to share your comments about type and typography! Just REGISTER FOR PRIZES here with your comments about:
Favorite fonts, and where to download them
Most thrilling typography layout
Unique and creative use of type
Pros and Cons of different type faces
Typography that sucks ... the Good, Bad and Ugly ... Post Here to WIN

The Spam Letters

THE SPAM LETTERS by Jonathan Land is a totally humorous book that fights spam, one email at a time -- entertaining correspondence (and some bewildering replies) to people who send out mass junk e-mailings (a.k.a. spam). Jonathan Land has done what none of us would want to do to beat spammers at their own game ... THE SPAM LETTERS

Design School Fun...

Well, if you've ever wondered about some of the things they do in design school look no further than the fantastic Savannah School of Art & Design where the students really get a workout. Try their summer sidewalk art show , and peek in on their annual trip to the beach for the Sand Arts Festival . If that's not enough, visit their formal Art Gallery for a wonderful respite from your daily grind. The home page is: www.scad.edu

Marry Illustrator to a Database

Automata combines the creativity of Illustrator with the incredible power of databases to turn Illustrator into a file-generating factory -- generating custom output files in Illustrator, PDF, EPS, JPEG, GIF and even Flash animations, at up to 1500 files per hour! A free Lite version is availablewww.zumedia.com

FUN Site of the Month

Take a trip to Levin Graphics, where Alex Levin does some pretty cool stuff with Photoshop retouching photography and design.

How are you ranked on the Web?

Advanced Web Ranking 3.0 helps check your web site position on all major search engines. It runs on Mac OS X, Windows 98/2000/XP, Linux and Solaris. Find out if you're moving up or down in the rankings, or if your site is listed at all, with easy to read and understand graphical and tabular reports. advancedwebranking.com

Mail: Where is it?

A reader in Michigan writes: "Dear Fred... I can't seem to understand the layout of the Design Center, why don't you have a search function?"
      Well, first of all canned search facilities like Google won't work. They turn up too many unrelated links. And, to have our own custom search engine would require moo-choo bucks for a programmer to build it. No cash = no search. It's as simple as that.

Mail: Navigating the Center

It's easy. The Design Center has departments where the content resides. Each month DT&G Magazine highlights the new features of each department. Look over to the right-hand column and you'll see each issue of DT&G going back at least a year. Observe near the top of each page, just under the header graphic and you'll see a 'bread crumbs' list. This will show you where you are at any given time. Also, each month this newsletter is posted in the "news" department.It's simple

Mail: Speech device for the blind

Jerry Cashman writes to tell us about the world's smallest Braille and Speech device for the blind. The BrailleNote PK weighs less than a pound and has dimensions of 6.8 inches by 3.6 inches by 1.3 inches. It's BlueTooth enabled and does what most PDA devices do except it's uniquelly created for the blind ... pulsedata.com

News: Protect and remember passwords

PC-Mac PasswordVault helps protect users from trojan horses and other malware. This password manager securely stores website usernames and passwords, Internet banking data and software registration details for convenient and easy access on Windows, MacOS X, MacOS Classic and Linux (x86) computers. The one-click access masks and defeats keyboard logger trojan horse programs ... lavasoftware.com

News: Video Surveillance on your PC

MSLSoft's Easy Photo Grabber is an easy-to-use Windows application that turns your PC into a video surveillance system. Capture and store a series of video images from your webcam or video camera, or use Easy Photo Grabber's motion detection feature to alert you immediately when activity is detected. With the cheap cost of PCs these days it might be a better solution than commercial security systems ... mslsoft.com

Win: Organize your media files in style

QPict Media Asset Management is a major update to the popular solution for viewing, organizing, searching and batch processing media files. Along with major improvements in RAW file support, QPict 6.1 includes more than 40 new features. For $35 Windows users can enjoy the kind of fun Mac users have with iPhoto ... QPict Media Asset Management

Stuff: Sticky Notes for Windows

here's a new personal organizer, desktop sticky notes (post-it) program for Windows users complete with instant messaging application (LAN messanger) and via e-mail. It even has an alarm, backup and restore function, and many other features ... shixxnote.com

Stuff: Find a file on your PC?

It would be excessive to drum again and again into users' heads the necessity of file search tools for their everyday work. diskMETA indexes all files on your drive only ONCE, with no limitations on their size, name or location. Now you can find them faster. Download the free "Lite" version and see what you think, or go to ... diskmeta.com

Stuff: Presentation templates

For a dizzying array of backgrounds for presentations check out Powerbacks. They work in packages like PowerPoint, Corel and Keynote -- in both .jpg (picture format) and .pot (PowerPoint) formats ... Powerbacks

Stuff: Nature stock photography

The Critter Zone brings just about everything you're looking for in nature, animal and scenery stock photos. Although we're inundated with stock photography houses, this one is very special because they're environmentally minded. 20 pro and semi-pro photographers grab the best images from around the world from ... ants to zebras ... sunsets to deserts

200 Digital Photography Tips

Got a digital camera? Check this free collection of digital camera and digital photography tips covering many facets of the field. They're short and quick ... Digital photography tips

Have a great August

Staying on track for the month, the Publishers' Warehouse has a slew of new Photoshop tutorials and the complete bibliography for our education feature. There, you'll be able to click into the best design schools in the world, and poke around looking at some spectacular student exhibits.

Getting Ready for September

During August the Publishers' Warehouse folks will be loading up new fonts, and type content... and arming the DTP Jumpstation with loads of great resources you can use online. Don't forget to enter your own resources so we can include them in the next issue.
      You can access the August Publishers' Warehouse Loading Dock by adding the word "school" to the http://www.graphic-design.com/ web address. Come on in and enjoy.

Thanks for reading... go forth and be creative!

Fred Showker
Editor / Publisher, DT&G Magazine

Parting words...

"I have never let my schooling
      interfere with my education."
            Mark Twain

Don't forget to see this month's winners on "Back to [Design] School" and sign up for Next September's giveaway!

Participate in your Design Center

Lots of fun and information for all... don't forget, any community is only as good as the participation of its members. We invite your tips, tricks, comments, suggestions and camaraderie.
HOW TO ADVERTISE When you advertise, your small contribution to the Design Center helps us continue the mission... and get's you lots and lots of traffic and visitors to your web site!